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Madonna won’t know until next week whether a Malawian boy she found in an orphanage in 2006 will become a permanent member of her family, her lawyer said Wednesday. Lawyer Alan Chinula had expected the judge to rule on the adoption Wednesday but said the hearing was delayed after a Malawian human rights group presented arguments on “shortcomings” in the southern African nation’s adoption laws. Chinula said the group was not challenging the adoption and he expected it to be approved next week. The pop star and her husband, film director Guy Ritchie, were not present at Thursday’s hearing in… Read more »

As former President Jimmy Carter nailed down the front porch of a home under construction Wednesday, singer Harry Connick Jr. gave an update on the progress being made in the Upper 9th Ward, an area slow to recover from Hurricane Katrina. The two are supporters of Habitat for Humanity, and both expressed their excitement about the organization’s construction of houses in this section of the city, where block after block of flooded-out homes still sit vacant on lots with overgrown grass. “To be part of this rebuild is thrilling,” said Connick, who took his 12-year-old daughter, Georgia, to the construction… Read more »

A judge has reinstated a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G., reversing an earlier decision to dismiss the case. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper threw out the lawsuit March 21 after determining the family missed a state deadline for bringing a claim against the city and two former police officers. The lawsuit was originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, then moved to federal court. The family appealed, and the judge reversed her decision after finding federal claims in the case can proceed, according to court papers obtained Thursday. Cooper gave the family 20 days… Read more »

As Portishead finished its meticulously sparse evening performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the typically reticent Beth Gibbons suddenly leapt off the stage and ran a 100-yard dash along the fenced-in crowd, exuberantly shaking their hands. Percussionist Geoff Barrow and guitarist Adrian Utley soon exited more quietly. Barrow, though, paused in front of a microphone to say, simply, “Thanks for waiting.” After a ten-year hiatus, Portishead is back. This is not a reunion bow, though, but rather an energized reboot of a band that ten years ago found itself burnt out from a rock ‘n’ roll life… Read more »

Canuck Avril Lavigne seems to know a thing or two about Southern hospitality. During a concert stop in Biloxi, Miss., Monday, Lavigne teamed up with the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and the Make-A-Wish Foundation to give a young fan a taste of the rock-star life. Not only did Kaylin Giroir, a 14-year-old from Louisiana who has muscular dystrophy, get to make an appearance on the red carpet before Lavigne’s concert, but she also got a Fender guitar signed by the musician. Kaylin spent private one-on-one time with Lavigne in her dressing room before she and some family members were… Read more »

It’s been more than a year since Quincy Jones was tapped to serve as a culture and art consultant for the 2008 summer Olympic games in Beijing. But instead of artistic planning, he’s been focused on human rights. “I don’t pretend to be a politician,” the music impresario and longtime humanitarian told Jones, 75, has met with the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations and was scheduled to address a group of Chinese-American business and cultural leaders in Los Angeles Saturday to discuss his position on China’s role in the Darfur crisis. China has faced protests from various human-rights groups… Read more »

My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way has spoken directly to fans about the problem of anti-emo related violence in Mexico. Tensions have escalated in the country over recent months with a series of reported attacks against people who have “an emo look”. Addressing the audience at Zero Fest in Mexico City last Saturday (April 12th), Way said the band no longer wanted to see “any fucking violence”. “I want to say something today before we continue. Recently we’ve been hearing a lot of stuff about some violence here in your country having to do with kids who want to wear… Read more »

The Vans Warped Tour is auctioning VIP tickets – complete with onstage seats – to benefit leukemia, cancer and AIDS research. The 14th annual music and extreme sports festival will partner with the T.J. Martell Foundation to auction off a pair of tickets to each concert on the 46-city tour, it was announced Tuesday. The highest bidders score stage-access passes to see their favorite bands up close. Angels & Airwaves, Cobra Starship and Gym Class Heroes are among the performers on the tour, which kicks off June 20 in Pomona, Calif., and winds down Aug. 17 in Los Angeles. Other… Read more »

As I write this, iTunes ranks as the 2nd largest seller of music in the U.S. — only Wal-Mart’s physical stores sell more. Digital revenue is real, and there is a lot of it being earned. Sales from iTunes alone can provide a band enough revenue to achieve true financial success. Don’t take my word for it, just look at some of the sales by the following unsigned artists utilizing the Net for both digital distribution and marketing: Kelly sold over 500,000 songs in five months, Eric Hutchinson sold 120,000 songs in three weeks, The Medic Droid sold over 25,000… Read more »

Folksy French-Israeli singer Yael Naim found commercial success after her song “New Soul” played in Apple’s MacBook Air laptop ads, pushing the song to No. 7 on U.S. music chart Billboard’s Hot 100. She already had gained fame for what some saw as a comic choice to cover pop singer Britney Spear’s “Toxic,” singing a soulful, poignant version of the commercial hit while playing piano. But Naim, 29, whose self-titled new album was just released in the United States two months earlier than originally planned following the success of the Apple ad, says she’s not worried about being seen as… Read more »